This book is a teen romance between two members of a battle-bot-building team. If that doesn’t make you want to read this book then I don’t know what will! The cover immediately drew me to this book, but when I read the synopsis I just knew I had to read it!

There were so many great things about this book. Yes this book is a romance, but it also tackles all the misogyny that girls and women in STEM have to go through. I really loved that this book touched on that because so many young girls that will read this book need to know that it happens and that they can and will overcome it! And although that was a part of the story, the novel never lost its fun and lighthearted flow. I also found the descriptions of all the robot information, including the battle bot fights, very easy to follow. There was technical talk, but I never got confused. Another thing I loved about this book was Bel, the female main character! She was so likable and I just wanted the best for her in life. The character development in this story was great, even with the characters I disliked, I understood them and their motivations.

However, speaking of characters I didn’t like, I didn’t like Teo, the male main character. He was very arrogant and self centered. Though his character did improve eventually, I would’ve enjoyed the story better if the romance had been between Bel and Dash, Teo’s best friend. Put Dash in the forefront and make Teo a side character and this could’ve been a five star read for me. I also didn’t like Neelam, the only other girl on the robotics team. I wanted to love her, but I’ve never been a fan of the “this character is rude, but only because they’re misunderstood” trope. Like I said previously, I understood every character’s motivations, I know that her character was meant to show that a lot of times women and girls in STEM have to have a guard up to protect themselves from the overwhelming misogyny, but there was no excuse for her to be continually rude to Bel when Bel never did anything to her.

I enjoyed this book! The end was very satisfying for me! Though, I would’ve enjoyed it more if I liked the male main character. But, I found it very enjoyable and can’t wait for young girls in STEM to read it!

Thank you Holiday House and NetGalley for this arc. All opinions are my own.

TW: misogyny, parental divorce

This book is so dang cute! Watching Bel come into her own and discover her love for robotics was inspiring, and I appreciate that the difficulties of being a girl in STEM were realistic and acknowledged. It was also great to see an 18 year old be an 18 year old and not have it all figured out right away, but also to see Bel be unapologetically herself - glitter and all. Teo is also adorable and I love the two of them together. This is a great science-y romcom!

An illustrated cover with good reviews? Say less, I’m in. This is a YA romance, set around two kids that are I guess academic rivals in robotics club. The beginning was a little slow but once Bel and Teo started interacting more. It was a cute story. I definitely had a few, oh yup I’m 30 and these characters are 18 moments but that’s to be expected I guess.
If you’d like a YA romance in an academic STEM setting, check this one out. Release date is 5/31!

I wish I read this book at 15. Honestly.

Aside from the wonderful romance, and the wonderful friendships. I really wish I read this as a teen. And I will be buying it for the teen in my life the moment it releases.

Now let's talk about the teacher Ms Voss. She is every teacher who I ever adored in school. There is something about no bullshit women who make the world go round. She's not strict, she demands respect! And she's iconic! She fights to give Bel the tools to succeed and she continues to check in. She is the ultimate mentor.

Also Neelam? That character is EVERYTHING. We constantly think we owe people kindness and softness, and we... just don't. She's such a fleshed out character even though she's mostly in the background. I adored her arc. It was realistic that her and Bel weren't BFFs, but at the end she still considered her someone crucial. I can't explain it, but it made me so emotional to see them in the last few chapters and the epilogue.

The romance? I think we really understand both of the characters motivations personally and romantically. I think they're characters that work well together. You want them to work out but you also agree that they have to sort their shit. Bel calls Teo out constantly, and while he can be defensive, he ultimately reassesses and adjusts. It really felt like I was watching two kids slowly become adults.

Last, Bel's family picking sides? Yeah that was perfect.

I can't want to read this again and again as a comfort book.

My Mechanical Romance is a cute YA enemies to lovers story with a STEM back drop. The main character Bel is new to the school and ends up joining the robotics team. The team captain, Teo, starts out as a bit of an academic rival of Bel, but they quickly become friends and more.

I loved the focus on robotics and how the love interests seem to challenge each other and bring out good qualities of the other. I do wish there was a bit more angst/conflict around the 30% mark when the characters were still in the “enemies” stage of the trope. Once they started to hang out one-on-one working on their robot and programming, I thought there dynamic was adorable. It was nice to follow Bel as she became more confident in her abilities, and I’m glad that she did not abandon something she enjoyed just because it was a male-dominated field. I enjoyed this easy and lighthearted read from beginning to end. Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

3.5/5 stars

So I actually got the ARC of this book back in March, but for some reasons I kept putting it off.

Well, that was clearly a mistake. This book was sooo cute! It had the right amount of character growth, romance, and plot. I loved how you could see both Bel and Teo maturing and discovering themselves while reading the book. Their relationship also developed smoothly, and while I see why some people think it was a bit abrupt, to me it made sense.

It’s a quick and easy read, I would definitely recommend!

My Mechanical Romance by Alexene Farol Follmuth

Due to family strive Bel is to transferred to a new school for her senior year. She finds herself unwillingly thrust onto the school’s robotics team after an accidental show of her engineering skills. Even after getting on the team, she doesn’t feel like she belongs. The boys treat her as if she doesn’t know what she is doing and the only other girl on the team is hostile. But when she starts spending late nights with Teo, the team captain, working on the robots, she’s determined to prove that girls do have a place in STEM.

A fun YA novel filled with all the things you love about women in STEM. This book has diversity, brainy women (my favorite kind), a little romance, and a growing sense of self.

Content Warning: mild language, kisses

if my house was on fire and there were only three things i could carry with me, this book would be definitely be one of them. i loved loved loved this book soo soo much, i completed 87% of it in two days and then i had to physically stop myself because i realized i was reading it way too fast and i want to savour whatever was left lmao. so you can say i absolutely devoured this book but honestly how can you not??

it was such a cute and wholesome read. it is full of cute moments that leave you feeling refreshed. you see bel and mateo go from not liking each other to becoming friends that trust and rely on each other to finally realising their feelings and dating. and they were soo soo cute i wanted to scream after every interactions of their haha. i also loved how they both approached the struggles the other person went through and pushed each other to do better.

but not only their relationship, this because is full of examples of healthy friendships, girls supporting girls and them learning to take up their own space and covering the sexism women face in traditionally male dominated fields.

i loved seeing bel grow as the book went on and the epilogue really made me feel like a proud mom seeing her kids grow up and do well in life. there are also a lot of different cultures represented throughout the book that i enjoyed reading about.

i would definitely recommend you to read it if you are looking for a cute ya romance that also focuses on a lot of other aspects of highschool

alsoo I LOVE YOU MS. VOSS, fictional or not i want to hug you soo soo bad

This book follows Bel as she spontaneously joins the robotics club, and meets captain Teo who sees potential in her. Bel has no idea what she wants to do in the future, but as she spends more and more time with Teo and the team tinkering with mechanics, she realises that she needs to take up her own space. Dealing with the challenges of being a woman of colour in STEM, Bel learns to love and be happy in her own skin.

I really connected with the main character Bel and her love for learning. Be it at school or in a tournament setting, she was always eager to learn and wasn’t afraid to ask questions. I also loved her personality and her kindness, despite having to deal with the divorce of her parents, which is addressed throughout the book, and how it impacts her decision-making. But this didn’t make her bitter or run away from the idea of love. Ultimately, her relationship with Teo was built on a strong foundation of understanding and honesty, and I enjoyed how slow burn it was.

Teo was an equally complicated character. It was interesting to see how he balanced his personal and academic life, while one threatened to take over the other. He’s such a focused character, and I have to admit I didn’t really like him at the beginning- I though he was arrogant and I couldn’t see him as a love interest. But I grew to like him by the end, because he was just like Bel at times, unsure of himself, but he also was ignorant of the privilege he had, coming from a wealthy family. And as this was written in dual POV, we got to see both sides!

The side characters made up a bulk of the story. I enjoyed the banter and diversity in the cast. We have a Holi festival scene and lots of team building situations, but also hints of micro-aggressions that boiled my blood and the blatant sexism that girls of colour in STEM face. Even though Bel was mentally affected by them, she didn’t let it stop her from being herself and staying determined.

Overall, I liked this book! The writing took me a while to get into, but this is an important story about academia and its flaws, while depicting first love, honesty, dealing with family circumstances, and mostly about taking up space in your own life. Highly recommend!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an e-arc!

I really REALLY enjoyed this book! It was such a fun and easy read. Although I do wish the academic rivals to lovers bit was more explored (since it's one of my favorite tropes of all time) and that it took longer for Teo and Bel to become friends.

The romance between the main characters was just adorable; it's dual POV, so you can really get into both of the characters' heads and see their relationship progression from two perspectives. I really liked that the book wasn't entirely focused on romance but also on the struggles women in STEM face every day by being in a male-dominated field.

The epilogue made me so happy I loved the fact it was set 2 years after the main plot ended. Overall, I would definitely recommend reading it, especially to people that are still in high school.

Thank you to @netgalley and @holidayhousebks for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

’There’s no rules saying I can’t have birds and ribbons on my pants and still be a great freakin’ engineer.’ – Bel Maier

My Mechanical Romance is Alexene Farol Follmuth’s YA debut (but you might know her better as Olivie Blake, the author of The Atlas Six) in which we follow Bel and Teo as they try to navigate the pressures of senior year, college applications and family problems all while being busy building robots.

It’s been a little while since I’ve read a YA contemporary but I saw a fantastic review about this book on my feed, I saw that it had women in STEM representation and academic rivals to lovers, add to that the amazing cover and I was SOLD! I immediately requested it after that.

However, after reading it I’m a little less enthusiastic about it. I still think the concept is really interesting and it was great to read about a high school robotics team but I was expecting a little bit more from it. The women in STEM representation I think was amazingly done! It gave me major Legally Blonde vibes but in the world of robotics and engineering, which I loved! The romance between Teo and Bel was sweet at times but I wouldn't classify their romance as ’academic rivals to lovers’ or ’enemies to lovers’. I’m not sure the romance was a necessary part of the plot, which I know is weird coming from me.

I feel like there was a lot more potential in exploring the friendships between Bel and Jamie and Teo and Dash, they were interesting and lovable side characters and I think I would have loved the book more if it was focused on these friendships.

Another thing that bothered me a bit is at many points during the book there are hints that suggest that something is going to happen and it feels like we are building up to that thing which then never happens? This left me feeling a bit confused and like there are certain things that were left unresolved.

As I’ve said the women in STEM representation was very well done and I think the whole book could have been just about that and then it would have been better. I loved reading about Bel’s journey to finding what she was passionate about and then pursuing that passion. The whole part where she finally realized that she can and should take up place in the world and especially in the male dominated field that she chose was amazing to read about. I would have love to read more about that!

My Mechanical Romance comes out on May 31st!

I got to read the ARC for this, it definitely had some cute moments but the robotics stuff really bored me.
If you're looking for a cutesy school romance with a lot of mechanical jargon then this is the book for you!!

Thank you to Netgalley, Holiday House and Alexene Farol Follmuth aka Olivie Blake for the arc in exchange of an honest review!

I read this book in one sitting. The premise of the book really intrigued me, I am and have been a major STEM girl since I was a kid and academic rivals to lovers and girls in STEM was so exciting. I have struggled more and more with reading YA because I wasn't able to relate to any of the themes in the books and the characters actions and reasoning typically would drive me crazy.

This book approached the struggle of being female in STEM, figuring out what your future is going to be in high school, dealing with being a child of divorce and feeling like you need to pick a side. There was also the internal conflict of knowing something isn't 100% correct but not really knowing what to do about it because you are still young, and the pressure of succeeding once you have your first success. Also, the impact of the support and/or lack of support from guardians and teachers can have on students and the students understanding of their own abilities. One good teacher in high school could change your life,

Let me tell you this book resonated with me and I appreciated the themes and topics this book approached and was very wholesome.

The struggles that Bel faced were very real and justified, which I find a lot of YA books because I just cannot to relate to them or their reactions but all of Bel's problems were realistic and her approach to them were very relatable. The family struggles, taking sides and becoming of age were the choices you make are your own and they impact others was expressed very well. So many of the themes throughout the book were extremely relatable to my own experiences and made this an even better experience for me.

There were a few times in this book that I was concerned that it could have went down the path of a frustrating YA novel but every time I had a concern it ended up being solved in a very reasonable way. It kinda felt like the romance was a bit in the backseat, because of the dual POV and initial rivals/ enemies to friends to lovers I hoped for a little bit more pining from Teo.

This book made me happy to read, the story lines were relatable and made sense, the romance was kind and supportive while still approaching the struggles of high school relationships.

So cute and enjoyable!
Read this so quick and it was too wholesome. Bel and Teos high school relationship was so realistic which was really refreshing.

My Mechanical Romance by Alexene Farol Follmuth follows high school senior Bel, who couldn’t care less about college applications and the future. Unfortunately, the deadlines are creeping in and she just accidentally revealed her knack for engineering to her teacher. Bel is forced to try out for the robotics club at her school, and to her dismay, she actually gets in. There, she learns what it means to be a team, discovers a little more about what she might want to do after high school, and maybe… finds love? I absolutely adored this book and it was definitely one of my favorite young adult romances!
I really enjoyed Follmuth’s writing style and the way the book was paced. There was never a dull moment and I was constantly finding myself wanting to keep going. I finished this book in less than 24 hours and genuinely enjoyed every second of it. The plot was never boring and kept getting better and better as I kept reading. This made it very difficult to put the book down once I got to the last quarter.
Both characters were equally enjoyable. Bel had this boldness to her that I adored. She knew how to stick up for herself and was so unapologetically unique. I liked that she never let men walk all over her and fought to be included whenever people started to get a little too misogynistic. Bel’s sense of loyalty was one of my favorite traits she had. Mateo was strong willed and always confident. He knew he had what it takes and refused to let anyone down. Teo’s love for others was definitely a curse and a blessing. He tried so hard to fix any problem anyone he loved came across. It was both endearing and frustrating. I wanted him to know that he didn’t need to take on everyone’s burdens and could focus on himself a little more. Overall, I loved both characters so much and found myself rooting for their success the entire time.
Follmuth dove into some serious societal issues that I would love to see more books uncover. The discussion on misogyny in STEM based areas in this book really made the story more enjoyable and gave depth to the plot. I loved seeing the girls on the robotics team stand up for themselves and show others that women belong in STEM just as much as men do.
Ultimately, I genuinely really enjoyed this book. It was both relatable and unique. I gave this book 5 stars (out of 5 stars) because there wasn’t a single moment I wasn’t entertained. It was a quick, super cute, and easy read and I totally recommend this book to all high schoolers- although anyone could enjoy a love story like Bel and Teo’s.
Thank you to NetGalley for sending me a copy of this book as an eARC.
You can find my public review of this book on my Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/paperbackfrogs/) and on my Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/haleyyun). These reviews will be posted sometime in the week prior to the release day of My Mechanical Romance. I will also be talking about this book in an upcoming video on my YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS9Dcya1aVVxRvALp9FVKMw).

Rivals to lovers, women in STEM, robotics competitions.. This book has it all!! I adore Bel and Tao. This book gives such a fun balance of their relationship and Bel really coming into her own. This book is a really sweet and fun summer read that also delves into the discrimination that women, women of color in particular, experience in the STEM field every day.

I am not usually a huge fan of YA romance, but this book has melted my jaded heart. I really enjoy the other novels this author has written, and she really knocked it out of the park with YA.

Thank you to netgalley and Holiday House for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Bel foi transferida de escola e precisa resgatar uma nota ruim, quando a professora sugere que ela faça um teste para entrar na equipe de robótica ela não coloca muita fé. Teo não quer pessoas novas na sua equipe, mas quando ele vê um desenho de Bel logo a coloca na equipe.

O que mais me incomodei nesse livro foram falas e pequenas atitudes machistas, eu sei que esse era o propósito porque há muito preconceito de mulheres nesse meio, mas foi difícil não me incomodar com isso. Eu amei que as meninas deram a volta por cima e mostraram que são tão capazes quanto os meninos. Acredito que essa tenha sido a mensagem geral da história.

O romance é bem fofo, mas não consegui me conectar totalmente. Não sei bem o que senti falta para criar essa conexão, mas uma coisa é certa, não queria que eles tivessem demorado tanto para se envolver e logo ocorrer uma briga. Esse foi outro ponto que não curti, eles ficaram uns 20% do livro juntos, talvez isso tenha prejudicado minha conexão. Gostaria mesmo de ter tido mais momentos deles, porque o que teve foram as minhas cenas favoritas.

É uma leitura gostosinha e rápida. Tem muitas coisas que a gente não conhece do universo da robótica, mas você acaba se acostumando. E a mensagem é bem legal.

4.5

Okay, it's official: Alexene Farol Follmuth/Olivie Blake could write a grocery list and I would be in raptures over it. I literally can't think of another contemporary author who is so adept in so many different literary sandboxes; Alone With You In The Ether is different stylistically from The Atlas Six, is different stylistically from My Mechanical Romance, but they all share some similar threads and themes that make them recognizably Alexene's/Olivie's.

I've been experiencing some definite YA fatigue lately (it could be said that I have perhaps overindulged lmao), and I just finished Alone With You In The Ether, so I wasn't sure this was going to be a vibe I was looking for when I started. But, despite the fact that this is undoubtedly a YA book with YA themes and YA tone, it didn't feel like a slog to read yet another high school story. In fact, despite the fact that I've been riding on a book slump rollercoaster for a few months now, it managed to pull me entirely in within a few pages. Magic.

I laughed, I cried, I wanted to build robots and fall in love.

Oh my heavens! This was good. I mean really good. The author pulled off having a really great story without making it PG or R rated. It was brilliantly done with a new idea and wonderful characters that had a special romance. I loved Belle and Tao. So sweet watching them. All of it worked for me and I’ll be thinking about this for awhile. I highly recommend you put this on your summer reading list.
I started reading this and then switched to the audiobook. It was narrated by Amielynn Abellera and Christopher Salazar. They were awesome. Perfect for the story.
Thanks Holiday House and Recorded Books via NetGalley.

This was such a cute read!! I really enjoyed it, and it was really easy to get through - I constantly wanted to just keep going. I also loved the strong emphasis on women in STEM and just all the positivity with women in general. I struggled a little with Teo, but I loved Bel. I just wish the side characters had a little more personality to them - a lot of them fell a little flat, but overall, really enjoyed this one and recommend it.